Effect of Lighting Methods on the Production, Behavior and Meat Quality Parameters of Broiler Chickens

Many farms have been replacing traditional lighting sources with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs because of technological modernization. We aimed to investigate the effects of incandescent lighting (IL) and LED lighting on Cobb 500 broiler chickens for six weeks. Production parameters (body weight,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals (Basel) 2024-06, Vol.14 (12), p.1827
Main Authors: Pap, Tibor István, Szabó, Rubina Tünde, Bodnár, Ákos, Pajor, Ferenc, Egerszegi, István, Podmaniczky, Béla, Pacz, Marcell, Mezőszentgyörgyi, Dávid, Kovács-Weber, Mária
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal behavior
Animal welfare
Behavior
Body weight
chicken behavior
Costs (Law)
Growth hormones
Laboratory animals
LED
Life sciences
Light emitting diodes
Lighting
Livestock farms
Meat quality
Methods
Poultry
Poultry industry
production
Production processes
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Summary:Many farms have been replacing traditional lighting sources with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs because of technological modernization. We aimed to investigate the effects of incandescent lighting (IL) and LED lighting on Cobb 500 broiler chickens for six weeks. Production parameters (body weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio), calculated slaughter values (yield%, relative breast%, thigh%) and breast meat quality parameters (pH at 45 min and 24 h postmortem, color, drip loss, kitchen equipment losses, shear force, meat composition) were recorded. Non-stop recordings were used to analyze the behavior of the birds during several periods of rearing. The LED group was significantly better in the body weight parameter between week 1 and 5 and the feed conversion ratio between week 2 and 3. The most significant difference in behavior was observed in the middle of the rearing period. The chickens in the LED group spent more time eating, drinking and interacting, and rested less. There was no difference in the meat quality parameters; only shear force was significantly lower in the LED group (1781.9 g/s vs. 2098.8 g/s). According to our results, LED lighting can bring about positive changes in animal production efficiency, behavior and other important characteristics for meat consumers.
ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani14121827